I finished my mental candy last night, so it’s time to get some intellectual fiber again. I’ll see how a biography of Patrick O’Brian turns out. Author is Dean King, which means nothing to me now. I haven’t read all of the Aubrey and Maturin novels, but I’ve read enough to know they are masterpieces. O’Brian was notorious for avoiding publicity, so a tough one for the biographer. Maybe he wasn’t as invisible as Joseph Heller, but not exactly David Eggers, either.
I was drawn into O’Brian’s novels because I’d devoured (repeatedly) the Hornblower novels by C.S. Forester. I even wrote one of my college essays about Mr. Midshipman Hornblower! What does that say about me? Too late.